


Gods & Monsters

by Jamie_Angel



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Likes Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish Loves Ronan Lynch, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Cabeswater - Freeform, Crossing Timelines, Dead Noah Czerny, F/M, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderbending, Ghost Noah Czerny, M/M, Nerd Richard Gansey III, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch Swears, i literally couldnt stop thinking about this, this fic? more like i'm gay for aidan lynch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:48:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jamie_Angel/pseuds/Jamie_Angel
Summary: Cabeswater merges the timelines. The Gangsey meet their alternate selves[AKA: the one where the Gansey meet the gender-swapped Gangsey]
Relationships: Aidan Lynch/Allison Parrish, Esther Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 1
Kudos: 59





	Gods & Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> my brain wouldn't let me rest until I'd written this. The names and shit come from my gender swapped version of the rave boys, creatively called the raven girls. i am in love with them all

Ronan was talking to trees.  
  
This wasn’t a particularly concerning thing, though, because he did it rather a lot. He frowned at them and said something more in Latin. Adam was also frowning.  
  
Gansey asked, “What’s wrong.”  
  
Ronan listened a long moment, then snapped in the general direction of the trees, “ _incerta esse prohibere.”_ Then, to Gansey, he said, “They’re being annoying. They keep saying that the “timelines will merge” but I can’t figure out what the fuck they mean.” He kicked his boot into the dirt, sending it scattering everywhere.  
  
Blue looked up from where she was sat on a particularly large root. “The timelines will merge?”  
  
“That’s what I said, isn’t it, asshole?”  
  
Blue waved off Ronan’s word with an airy hand, “Well, Cabeswater messes with time. Maybe the future will merge with the present.”  
  
Noah said, “I don’t think I’d like that.” And then went back to playing pat-a-cake with the Orphan Girl.  
  
Gansey started to say something, but Adam cut him off with a general shushing noise. “There was a sound. From over there.”  
  
Everyone’s eyes followed Adam’s to a thick nest of brush. Some of the leaves were quivering ever so silently. Noah and Orphan Girl stopped playing playground games.  
  
Orphan Girl stood up. She whispered “Kerah.” And flitted to Ronan’s side.  
  
Somewhere on the other side of the brush, a muffled voice called, “No, Charlotte, it is this way. Yeah, ‘course I’m sure, the trees told me so.”  
  
Adam mouthed, _Trees_. It hadn’t escaped Ronan’s notice that this meant that: for one, whoever was on the other side of the brush knew Latin, and, two, the trees talked to them.  
  
Another, softer voice, said, “I don’t know. I doubt Glendower is just in a bush.”  
  
They all froze. Glances were exchanged very quickly between all of them, but eventually all their eyes rested on Gansey, awaiting his verdict. He swallowed, and then nodded quickly once. Blue got up from her root and stood by his side, placing one of her small hands on his shoulder. Ronan unconsciously shifted closer to Adam. Adam slipped his hand into Ronan’s, squeezing once.  
  
The brush gave a tremendous shudder, and a girl fell out. And then another, and another, and another, and then, finally, the shortest guy Ronan had ever seen stumbled out last. No – not last, a black bird, a raven, flew out smoothly and landed on one of the girl’s shoulders.  
  
“What,” Ronan said upon observing the women that had just fallen through a bunch of leaves, “the fuck.”  
  
First off, they were clearly _like them_. By that, he meant that they were a bunch of school kids hunting for Glendower in their spare time.  
  
Second of all, they were clearly _like them_. By that, he meant that the third girl had Gansey’s eyes and mouth, the fourth had Adam’s cheekbones, and the guy had Blue’s sense of style. The first girl had Ronan’s own eyes and sharp smile, and, apparently, his bird. He turned his eyes up to the trees and whistled once. Chainsaw came flying down to settle delicately on his own shoulder.  
  
The fourth girl cocked her head in a very Adam-like gesture that made Ronan want to kick something.   
  
The third girl turned to the first, “Didn’t you say this was the way?”  
  
“That’s what the trees said.”  
  
The guy was studying Blue with interest. It was not the sort of interest that would have Blue in uproar, but rather, the same interest one would use while trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle. Ronan didn’t like it either way. The guy said, “Gansey.”  
  
Gansey startled, he said, “What?” at the same time the third girl said, “Yes?”  
  
The guy didn’t say what he wanted to. His eyes darted between Gansey and... apparently, also Gansey.  
  
Real Blue said, “Jesus.” Ronan looked at her with an eyebrow raised, and she explained, “The trees told you that the timelines would merge. They’re us, from another timeline.”  
  
Ronan milled over this thought, and then turned to look at the girls. The first one had a shaved head and incredibly smudged eyeliner. The second had straight blonde hair pulled back by a headband, and the left side of her face was smudgy and hard to look at. The third was confident, privilege and importance seeped out of her very being. The fourth had dust coloured hair tied into a ponytail, and wary eyes that tracked Ronan’s every move. The guy was sharp-faced and clad in a mix and match of fabrics, along with heavy looking combat boots.  
  
“Maggots right.” Ronan said. He gestured vaguely to the girls. “Angry, smudgy, aloof, anxious, Blue. They’re us.”  
  
“I’m not sure how I feel about my name being a descriptor.” Real Blue said mildly.  
  
“Uh,” said the smudgy girl – the female Noah, “If anything, you’re us.”  
  
Gansey, the real one, raised his eyebrows, “I think we’re both likely to think that we’re the originals in this situation, don’t you?”  
  
Adam spoke for the first time, “Neither of us are the originals.” He took his hand from Ronan’s to demonstrate, a movement tracked by the female Ronan, “Cabeswater messes with time. We are both simultaneously a version of each other, and a version of another timeline.”  
  
Not-Adam nodded, “You’re us, but we’re you.”  
  
“Great, not confusing at all.” Not-Ronan said.  
  
Gansey smiled politely, “How about we start with names? I suppose we’ll all have different names in these different timelines.”  
  
Not-Noah volunteered first, “Charlotte Czerny.”  
  
Noah waved half-heartedly, “Noah Czerny.”  
  
“Ronan Lynch.” Said Ronan.  
  
“Aidan.” Said Not-Ronan.  
  
“Blue.” Said Blue.  
  
“Blue.” Repeated Not-Blue. Then, he said, “It doesn’t seem fair you all get new names, and I don’t.”  
  
“Maybe it’s because your names fucking weird.” Aidan said. Blue – the alternate timeline one – stuck his tongue out at her petulantly.   
  
“Aidan.” Warned Not-Gansey. She smiled warmly at them and stuck out a hand. She had the same people-pleasing smile that real Gansey had. “Since we know we both go by Gansey, let’s do full names. Esther Cordelia Gansey III.”  
  
Gansey shook her hand, “Richard Campbell Gansey III.”  
  
“Wow.” Said Real-Blue, “That was really freaky and really pretentious. I’m so glad you don’t use your full names.”  
  
Esther Gansey smiled slightly, and spoke to Dick Gansey, “My brother is called Richard.”  
  
“My sister is named Helen.”  
  
Both Gansey’s seemed delighted by this discovery. Ronan could see his Gansey practically itching to write this entire encounter in the journal. Ronan turned to Adam, “Introduce yourself. Don’t be rude.”  
  
Adam’s eyebrows shot up quickly, “ _You_ are telling _me_ not to be rude.”  
  
Ronan grinned and leaned heavily on his boyfriends shoulder. “I introduced myself very pleasantly to me with eyeliner.”  
  
Adam rolled his eyes, lips twitching into a smile. To his doppelganger, he said, “I’m Adam.”  
  
“Allison.” She said. She seemed rather interested in the exchange between Ronan and Adam. “Allison Parrish.”  
  
Orphan Girl tugged at the hem of Ronan’s shirt, and spoke in her strange language.  
  
Ronan snapped, “Speak English. Latin, maybe. You know I can’t understand you out here.”  
  
She said in Latin, “ _Úbi sum?_ ”  
  
Ronan turned to Aidan warily, “You got one of her lurking around here?”  
  
Aidan didn’t pay attention to him, her eyes fixed on the Orphan Girl, “What are you doing out of my dreams?”  
  
Allison’s attention snapped to Aidan in an instant, “You’ve dreamt that?”  
  
Aidan shook her head slowly, “No. She’s usually just there. Like a helper or something.”  
  
“I didn’t want her to come out.” Ronan said, glaring at the dream creature, “But I was trying to get something for Adam and she came back with me.”  
  
Aidan didn’t say anything more.  
  
Gansey, the male one, said, “Do you think you can come out of Cabeswater on our side? I think it’ll be easier to talk at Monmouth.”  
  
___  
  
Aidan sprawled on the sofa as if she lived there. Of course, she did in an alternate universe, but that wasn’t the point. Ronan stood in front of her, and glared at her. Usually his well-crafted glares had people on their feet and moving in seconds. But Aidan was just him, and she just glared back at him with equal sharpness. They stared each other down for a second, both unrelenting, until Esther Gansey said, “Aidan.” And Dick Gansey said, “Ronan,” both in the same warning tone.  
  
Aidan relented at the same time as Ronan did, the former tearing of her eyes away and making room, the latter folding himself up to sit by Adam’s legs.  
  
“So you two are together?” Esther Gansey asked.  
  
“Tactful, aren’t you?” Ronan half-snarled. He didn’t like being asked about his thing with Adam, because it still didn’t seem _real_. He used to think about holding his calloused his hand, and now he _could_ and Adam would kiss him – nothing Ronan had ever thought about had ever actually prepared him for Adam loving him back.  
  
Gansey put both of her hands up in surrender, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”  
  
Blue, the male one, snorted, “Do you ever?”  
  
Esther Gansey sent Other-Blue a reproachful look, “I was just asking.”  
  
Adam said calmly, “Yes, we’re together.”  
  
Esther looked toward Allison and Aidan, who were sat opposite each other, Aidan on the couch and Allison sat on the floor by the wall by Charlotte. They couldn’t fit eleven people on the couch, even if one of those people was a child and two of them were pint-sized. As it was, normal Blue was half on real Gansey’s lap, and Adam was pushed into Aidan, who, in turn, was pushed into Noah who was sitting on the couch’s arm. Both he and Charlotte looked very much _alive_. Having two Blue’s in one room was doing wonders for them.  
  
Aidan looked directly into Allison’s eyes. She held the gaze fast. Something passed between them. Ronan knew that look, as did Adam. It was the look that had passed between them both before Ronan kissed Adam for the first time.   
  
Noah stood up rather abruptly, and walked to the other end of the couch, closer to the two Blues. Aidan adjusted the way she sat, and Allison took Noah’s place.  
  
“Ok.” Said Ronan’s Blue, to the guy Blue, “Are you cursed?”  
  
“Can’t kiss my true love or she’ll die.”  
  
“Me too.” Blue said, sounding a mixture of amused and melancholy.  
  
“What?” Ronan said sharply.  
  
“Yeah, what the fuck Blue?” Aidan agreed.  
  
Blue cringed. “I forgot you didn’t know.”  
  
“I’d fucking like to.”  
  
Blue swallowed, all her attention directed to Ronan, “If I kiss my true love, he’ll die. It’s pretty simple. I’ve been told since I was a kid.”  
  
Ronan arched an eyebrow, “And why wasn’t I told about this?”  
  
“It doesn’t exactly apply to you. You’re the only one of you all that I haven’t kissed.”  
  
Ronan arched a second eyebrow, “you kissed Noah?”  
  
“He’s dead. I can’t kill him.”  
  
“Hey!” Noah said.  
  
“Just because someone’s dead doesn’t mean you can bring it up all the time.” Charlotte tacked on.  
  
Aidan turned toward her, “What, is it rude in ghost manners?”  
  
“I’m pretty sure it’s rude in _all_ manners.”  
  
“I’m pretty sure that if I told an alive person that they were dead, they wouldn’t be that offended.”  
  
“I don’t know, why don’t you go and _ask_ one then”  
  
“No, I agree with Charlotte.” Said Allison, “I don’t think many living people would like to talk about their death.”  
  
Aidan twisted to look Allison in the eye and demanded, “Whose side are you on?”  
  
Allison, looked Aidan in the eyes, “I’m on no-one’s side. Charlotte made a fair argument.”  
  
Aidan scowled.  
  
“Personally,” said guy Blue, “I don’t think I’d like it if someone told me I was dead. Not in an offended way, just in a they’re wrong kind of way.”  
  
Aidan gestured at him triumphantly. “See. It’s not offensive.”  
  
“I don’t know,” Esther Gansey mused, “I might be offended.”  
  
Dick Gansey said, “I wouldn’t be.”  
  
“I died.”  
  
“So did I.”  
  
They regarded each other coolly for a moment. Allison said, conversationally, “I think I’d know if I was dead.”  
  
“It is definitely something you’re aware of.” Noah told her.  
  
Guy Blue nodded, “That makes sense. It’s a rather noticeable thing, I’d imagine.”  
  
“Yeah,” Charlotte said, “The first time you disappear for large amounts of time, it becomes something that you notice.”  
  
Silence fell upon the group, comfortable like a blanket. Ronan let his head fall back against Adam’s knees. Adam stroked one hand over Ronan’s head, thumb curving smoothly around his ear and across the shaved stubble of his hairline.  
  
Aidan shot to her feet, jostling Adam and startling Allison. “I’m going for a drive.”  
  
Ronan looked at her, “Your cars not fucking here, and you’re not driving mine.”  
  
“Fine.” She snapped at him, “I’m going for a walk.” She turned toward Allison, arms folded over her chest. With her back to the group, everyone could see the hooks of her crawling tattoo. Ronan wondered if they were exactly the same, or if they had differences. Gansey always said that Ronan’s tattoo was constantly changing. To Allison, Aidan said, “You coming with?”  
  
Allison eyes widened slightly, but she nodded, and sliding off the arm of the couch.  
  
Aidan and Allison walked to the door of Monmouth. Aidan made eye contact with the male Blue and said, “Don’t wait up, Maggot.”  
  
Blue finger-gunned. The door closed, and he yelled after them, “You have to come back so we can go home!”  
  
Aidan’s far-off cackle wavered through the wood. Blue grinned. Gansey looked tired. Charlotte laughed along with her.   
  
The female Blue had round eyes. To the room at large, she said, “Oh dear lord there’s two of them.”  
  
Ronan laughed.   
  
Drily, Dick Gansey said, “How will I cope?”  
  
Esther said, “I can barely handle Aidan at her best. I don’t think I’d be able to live through Aidan _and_ Ronan.”  
  
Ronan smiled his sharp smile. “You motherfuckers aren’t ready for me.”  
  
“I can handle you.” Noah said, offended.  
  
Ronan’s smile twisted even more, “I threw you out a window.”  
  
“I’m still angry about that.”  
  
Charlotte said, “You got thrown out a window too?”  
  
“Unfortunately.”   
  
“So, who wants to go to Nino’s?”  
  
___  
  
Allison and Aidan walked hand in hand back to the brush. It seemed to be a new thing, and neither of them knew how to navigate it. No-one commented on it, nor did they comment on the fact that Gansey slipped her hand into Blue’s.   
  
“Well,” Dick Gansey said when they all by the brush. “This was certainly an interesting experience.”  
  
Esther smiled politely, “Yes, certainly. Do you think that Cabeswater will let us through.”  
  
“There’s only one way to find out, but I do think it will.”  
  
Esther nodded, “Goodbye, then.”  
  
“Goodbye.”  
  
Aidan and Ronan regarded each other with a cool glance, and then Aidan let go of Allison’s hand and passed through. Allison nodded once at the group before departing. Charlotte patted Blue on her head before following after Allison.  
  
The male Blue said, “It’s been incredibly weird meeting you all. I’ll be honest, I had very conflicting feelings about you all. But I’ll admit, you’re ok.”  
  
Female Blue said, “Wow, thanks me.”  
  
“You’re welcome, me.” He said, and left. Gansey patted Gansey on the shoulder awkwardly and left.  
  
“Overall,” Adam said, “That was one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had. And I’ve made a deal with a sentient forest.”  
  
Ronan’s cackle echoed through the trees.


End file.
